The Return of the King

2 Samuel: The Wages of Sin - Part 6

Sermon Image
Date
Nov. 17, 2024
Time
10:30
00:00
00:00

Transcription

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.

[0:00] If you don't know me, my name is Niels. I'm one of the leaders here. I'll be preaching. Because of the baptisms, we'll have a lot of people here today who have not been in the rest of the service, in the series.

[0:12] We're in the book of 2 Samuel, in the Old Testament, in the Bible. So I thought, let me, you know, start with the introduction so that, yeah, we can bring you a bit up to speed.

[0:23] But also, actually, before all that, let's pray because we want God to speak to us. So let's pray together. Our Father, thank you that you speak.

[0:37] That you speak to us in your love, in your grace. We pray that we would listen. Pray that we would hear, each of us, what we need to hear. Thank you that you are a God of grace.

[0:48] God who gave your son, Jesus. And pray that we would look to him today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Great. But, yeah, we're in 2 Samuel, and it's nearly the end of the series.

[1:04] Now, our youngest daughter turned 12 a couple of months ago. So she's finally old enough to watch Marvel. And so we've been going movie by movie through the MCU, which has been really great.

[1:18] Now, there's one movie in there that I'm not going to say its name because I know of some people who haven't seen it all yet. But there's one that I think is outstanding because it's very different from all the others.

[1:29] Because it doesn't have a happy ending. Now, most movies have a happy ending, right? All those movies, you know, yes, the heroes, they are struggling. They're having a tough time. But ultimately, they win.

[1:40] And that's what you want, right? You want to have a movie. You want to relax and be encouraged. And so you want a movie with a happy ending. I mean, we all want happy endings, right?

[1:51] In all our life, maybe your marriage is going through a difficult time. But, you know, with counseling and prayer, you hope that you will work through it. And then, you know, our marriage is restored.

[2:03] Maybe work at the moment is really tough. The hours, the pressure. But when this project is over, then we go back to the good old days, right? That's what we're waiting for.

[2:14] Maybe you remember the COVID days. We were just waiting for it all to finish. And now, actually, Hong Kong is really nice again, right? Without all the restrictions. The economy, you know, if we just wait long enough, it will start growing again.

[2:28] That's what we want. We want, is everything okay? Okay. Yeah, we just want things to be restored. We want a happy ending.

[2:40] Now, the Bible is all about ultimately happy endings, right? It's all about hope. It's all about restoration. It all, I mean, it starts with everything going wrong in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.

[2:52] But it ends with restoration. And so many along the way. And so, this is 2 Samuel. It's the story of David. David, who we all know from David and Goliath.

[3:03] God's chosen king. And he was a wonderful king. And under him, God built this beautiful kingdom that we saw a few weeks ago. And, yeah, it looked great.

[3:15] The only thing is, it was all under threat because of what David had done, right? He had committed adultery and murder. There were terrible consequences. It affected him.

[3:26] It affected everyone else around him. And, yeah, two weeks ago, he had to flee for his life because his son tried to take over the kingdom, made himself king.

[3:36] But the past two weeks, then, some good news. First of all, everything that happened really changed him, brought him back to God. And then, last week, yeah, David was saved.

[3:47] He was delivered from certain death. Basically, because his great enemy, his son, yeah, died. The war was over. And so, now everything is set for him to come back, right?

[4:01] It was a great cost. But today, David is going to come back and sit on the throne again. And this is basically the end of the story. Next week is just an epilogue. But, yeah, we called it The Return of the King, right?

[4:15] So, you know that movie. We want a happy ending. So, why don't we go and look at that? So, Anastasia is going to come up and read a few parts of this passage.

[4:26] And then, we'll look at it together. The scripture reading today comes from the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 19 to 20.

[4:39] Please follow along on your bulletin, on the screen, or on your own Bibles. Starting in chapter 19, verse 8, we read, Now, Israel had fled every man to his own home.

[4:52] And all the people were arguing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines.

[5:04] And now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now, therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?

[5:18] And King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests. Say to the elders of Judah, Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his house, when the word of our Israel has come to the king?

[5:34] You are my brothers. You are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king? And say to Amsa, Are you not my bone and my flesh?

[5:48] God do so to me and more also, if you are not commander of my army from now on in place of Joab. And he swayed the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, Return, both you and all your servants.

[6:06] So the king came back to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king, and to bring the king over the Jordan. And Shemai, the son of Jerah, the Benjamite from Baharim, hurried to come down with the men of Judah to meet King David.

[6:25] And with him were a thousand men from Benjamin. And Ziba, the servant of the house of Saul, with his fifteen sons and his twenty servants, rushed down to the Jordan before the king, and they crossed the fort to bring over the king's household, and to do his pleasure.

[6:42] And Shemai, the son of Jerah, fell down before the king, as he was about to cross the Jordan, and said to the king, Let not let my lord hold me guilty, or remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem.

[7:01] Do not let the king take it to heart, for your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I have come this day, the first of all the house of Joseph, to come down to meet my lord the king.

[7:18] Abishai, the son of Zeriah, answered, Shall I be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord's anointed? But David said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeriah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me?

[7:39] Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel? And the king said to Shimei, You shall not die.

[7:52] And the king gave him his oath. And Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king. He had neither taken care of his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came back in safety.

[8:12] And when he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth? He answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me.

[8:28] For your servant said to him, I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go with the king. For your servant is lame.

[8:39] He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord, the king is like the angel of God. Do therefore what seems good to you. For all my father's house were but men doomed to death before my lord the king.

[8:58] But you set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right have I then to cry to the king? And the king said to him, Why speak any more of your affairs?

[9:12] I have decided you and Ziba shall divide the land. And Mephibosheth said to the king, Oh, let him take it all, since my lord the king has come safely home.

[9:27] In chapter 20, verse 23, we read, Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel. And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was in command of the Kertites and the Pelethites.

[9:41] And Adoram was in charge of the forced labor. And Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilut, was the recorder. And Shiva was secretary. And Zadok and Abithar were priests.

[9:55] And Ira, the Jairat, was also David's priest. This is the word of God. Thanks, Anastasia. Yeah, we're in the middle of a story.

[10:08] I'm sure there's some details that, for visitors, you wonder what that's about. But let's look at it together. Now, we couldn't read it all. And yet, if you look at the big story, what's the big point?

[10:21] I think you can see David is back, right? David is back. Today, he's crossing the Jordan, and he's going to come back to Jerusalem and come on the throne. He had to flee for his sin, but now he's back, and he's going to Jerusalem with great fanfare.

[10:37] Everyone's coming to meet him. And you can really see that if you look at all the different stories, right? So in chapter 15, when he had to flee, what happened? Well, he left Jerusalem, and then he met his loyal friends.

[10:49] Next slide. He met his loyal friends. Then he met Tiba. Then he met Shimi. And then he crossed the Jordan. And now, what happens today?

[11:00] Well, he crosses the Jordan. He meets Shimi. He meets Jiba. He meets his loyal friends. And he gets back to Jerusalem. It's really the same thing in reverse, right? I don't know.

[11:11] We sometimes go on holiday, and we take the airport bus. And it's always the same, right? Here's the Eagle's Nest Tunnel, and then the Stonecutters Bridge and the Tsing Ma Bridge and under City Gate Outlets, and we get to the airport.

[11:25] And then when we come back, well, the City Gate Outlets and what's it? The Tsing Ma Bridge and the Stonecutters Bridge. And you really feel, hey, we're getting back, right?

[11:36] And that's the point here. David is back. It's exactly reversed. Everything that happened is like it's reversed, which is incredible mercy, right? God's incredible mercy after what he had done.

[11:49] He deserved to die, but God had mercy, and now he's back, which is great news for David himself. And of course, given who David is, it should be such great news for the people because here was God's chosen king, the man after God's heart, right?

[12:08] He was the one who ruled with righteousness and justice, and everything was so great under him. And when you see this passage, now we have a Bible reading plan at this church, and in the summer, we went to Samuel, and people were sharing, and many of them were struck by how David is so forgiving, right?

[12:26] So there was this guy, Shimee, who, yeah, when David had to flee, he stood on some higher ledge, and he threw stones at David. Get out, get out, you man of blood.

[12:38] He cursed the king, and yeah, terrible event. But then, of course, he made a miscalculation, right? Because now David is back. And you can hear Shimee, and you can hear him come.

[12:50] Anastasia read it so well, right? Oh, please, Lord, I know I've sinned. Please don't take it to heart, right? Because, yeah, he knows David is back, and he did real wrong. And then one of David's officers says, I mean, shouldn't we put this guy to death, right?

[13:05] He cursed the king. That is, you shouldn't do that, right? But then what does David say? No, right? Why should you be as an adversary to me, you sons of Zeruiah, my officers, shall anyone, what is it, verse 22, shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day?

[13:25] For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel? And the king said to Shimee, you shall not die, and the king gave him his oath, right? Here is someone who did something so wrong, and yet David is forgiving, right?

[13:38] He, you won't die, I swear. Wonderful, right? So, yeah, David is really back. And that's important because then in chapter 20, we get the counterpart.

[13:51] What is the counterpart? Well, you have the king and you have the kingdom. In chapter 20, we didn't read it, but it's all about how the kingdom is back. If you're interested, why is it?

[14:03] The story isn't that important. There's a bit of squabbling. An argument between David's tribe, Judah, and some of the other tribes. And at some point, there's one guy who says, well, we've had enough.

[14:15] 20 verse 1. Now, there happened to be there a worthless man whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. And he blew the trumpet and said, we have no portion in David and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.

[14:32] Every man to his ten, so Israel. And, yeah, he tries to just split the kingdom. Now, in the end, he doesn't get many followers. He and his friends flee to some city and David's army comes after him and in the end, he gets beheaded.

[14:48] In the story, Joab becomes commander again. It's not that important, but the interesting thing is, it's actually a reboot of chapters 2 to 4.

[15:00] We never preached on it, but it seems to, there's three key events that are exactly the same as chapters 2 to 4. Why does that matter? Well, chapters 2 to 4 of the book was God establishing David's kingdom.

[15:13] It's how David became king over all Israel. And so, the fact that we get a reboot, but we get the same thing, David, here's the kingdom. God is reestablishing David's kingdom, which is what we want, right?

[15:25] It's not just about the guy on the throne, but his rule, a rule of victory and peace and rest and blessing. That is what we want. And yeah, that's what we get in chapter 20.

[15:38] And at the end of the chapter, we read that summary. It's the same as chapter 8, right? At the end of chapter 8, there was this summary, kind of, David seems so stable, the kingdom is here, and now end of chapter 20.

[15:51] Again, we get this summary, and Joab was over the army, and Jehoshaphat, the son of El-Hilut, was the recorder, and this guy was a priest, and right? Again, it's not Absalom's kingdom, it's David's kingdom.

[16:04] David is back. The kingdom is back. That is such a wonderful news. It really feels like the good old days, the happy ending that we want. Except, I know what you're expecting, right?

[16:19] Is it really so good? If you've read it carefully, if you've maybe read the rest of the Bible, is it really so good? They seem back, but are they? Are the king in the kingdom back?

[16:33] Because with this guy, Shimee, I don't know if you did the Bible reading plan, and after 2 Samuel, you read 1 Kings. And we meet David at the end of his life, when he kind of gives instructions to his son Solomon, who will become the next king.

[16:48] And what kind of things does David say? He gives some instructions. 1 Kings chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, it's here on the screen. And David says, And there's also with you Shimee, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite from Bacchariim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Maganaim.

[17:09] And when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with a sword. Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man.

[17:21] You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to shale. That's not very nice, right? Yeah, this guy cursed me, but I promised not to kill him, so when I'm gone, you kill him.

[17:36] Right? That's what he's saying. Now, I don't think it's a grudge. I mean, it's justice, right? The justice needs to be done on this guy, maybe, and it doesn't have to be so negative.

[17:50] But you may wonder, why didn't he do that in chapter 19? Right? Why not do it then? Well, if you go back to 2 Samuel, I think the answer is clear, right?

[18:03] Because verse 16 and 17 of chapter 19, and Shimei, the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite from Bacarim, hurried to come down with the men of Judah to meet King David, and with him were a thousand men from Benjamin.

[18:19] And he had a lot of friends with him. And if David just had him executed there and then, those thousand men wouldn't really like it, and maybe that wouldn't really help the stability of his kingdom.

[18:30] So it's just politically that he says, okay, I'm not going to deal with this opponent because I want to keep my king together. So let me not do justice, let me do what's helpful for my kingdom. Right?

[18:42] That's the problem. And you see that even more with the next story, right? With Ziba and Mephibosheth. Now again, that's something we've seen over the past few sermons, right?

[18:52] Do you remember Mephibosheth? He was the grandson of Saul, who was kind of David's great enemy in the past, the previous king. And so, of course, you know, he comes from his enemy's family, and yet David was so wonderfully kind to him, right?

[19:08] He gave Mephibosheth, the guy was crippled, he was lame, such a wretch, and yet David gave him, you know, all the land of Saul, and Mephibosheth could always eat at his table.

[19:20] It was such grace, right? Such steadfast love. But then a few weeks ago, when David was fleeing, Tiba, who was the servant of Saul, and David told him to serve Mephibosheth now, he came to David with a lot of food, and David asked, hey, Tiba, where's Mephibosheth?

[19:38] And Tiba said, well, he is wringing his hands, right? He is saying, yeah, now today, the kingdom is going to come back to me, right? It felt like such a betrayal, a stab in the back.

[19:48] He had been so kind to Mephibosheth, and now he's stabbing him in the back. But now, Mephibosheth himself shows up, right? Verse 20, and Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king at 24.

[20:00] He had neither taken care of his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came back in safety. Mephibosheth, you know, he looks terrible because, you know, all this time he hadn't taken care of himself because he was clearly so upset that David had to leave.

[20:18] And David asked, hey, why didn't you come with me? Well, I'm lame, right? I can't just go. I need a donkey. And I asked my servant, give me a donkey, but instead he went off to you and lied, right?

[20:31] Because Siva said, yeah, he was just lying about Mephibosheth. Everyone can see, look, Mephibosheth, he was so loyal to David. And Siva was just a liar who just thought this is a good opportunity to get all the land for me, right?

[20:48] How does David deal with it? Well, what should he do? It's very obvious, right? He should get everything back to Mephibosheth. And Siva needs to be punished. Instead, verse 29, and the king said to him, why speak any more of your affairs?

[21:06] I have decided you and Siva shall divide the land half and half. That's not really just, right? That's completely unjust. Clearly, Siva is a liar.

[21:18] Mephibosheth is your loyal servant. Why would you do that? Well, again, who is Siva, right? Verse 17, 19 verse 17, that detail, and Siva, the servant of the house of Saul with his 15 sons and his 20 servants.

[21:36] I don't know what you think when you hear the servant of Saul. Do you think he's a cleaner? No. This guy has 20 servants himself, right? This guy is pretty powerful. He has 15 sons.

[21:48] That doesn't mean that, you know, he likes large families. It means he has like three or four wives, right? Which is kind of the status symbol. It's like having three Ferraris, right? back then.

[22:00] So basically, this guy is just very powerful. And David doesn't want to cross him. Hey, here's a crippled guy. Here's a really powerful man. Let me do half and half, right?

[22:12] It's just corruption. Let me favor the powerful so that, that is what David's doing. And so, the guy of justice and righteousness, well, he's basically just the compromised king.

[22:27] Right? We see David here. We thought David's back. He is back, but he's a compromised king. No more justice, no more self-interest instead of justice.

[22:41] We thought he's back, but he's not. So sad, right? The old David is gone. He's a compromised king. And that's such a shock, right?

[22:51] Because David was such a good guy. He had such an amazing track record for almost all this book, right? For almost all his life. And then there was just one thing with Bathsheba, one adultery and murder.

[23:05] And then, you know, but then he went through so much, right? He had to flee, all the discipline, all the consequences, the costs, and now he's back. Surely that's enough. Except it's not.

[23:17] Right? He will never be the same again. He's truly forgiven, restored, and yet he is never the same again. One sin and it's all lost. In a way, just like Adam and Eve, right?

[23:30] One rebellion, one time that they turned away from God and did their own thing, and it's all lost. Ultimately, David is just a sinful human being.

[23:44] I think that challenges us, right? It's not how we usually think of people. You know, when we think of bad and good, we think of this kind of spectrum, right? From really bad to really good.

[23:55] And, you know, David, he was pretty much here. Maybe he wasn't all the way there, but he was pretty good, right? That's what we think of people. We just, you know, we need someone good or better.

[24:06] So often in our life, right? Like marriage. Apparently, Hong Kong has the seventh highest divorce rate in the world. I didn't know that, depending on how you calculate it. Now, why do people divorce?

[24:19] Why do people not get married? So that it's easier to break up? Well, because they think, I need a better spouse, right? I need someone, well, who doesn't have these annoying habits with whom I have less disagreements, less conflict.

[24:32] That's what people want. I mean, there's some truth in that. I mean, there are some people, yeah, some people are better than others. And there's some people that are terrible and you should never marry them, right?

[24:44] You need to be very careful who you marry. But, don't forget the universality of sin. In the end, they're all sinners.

[24:55] And, you know, here's David, the most wonderful king, yet one sin and it's over, right? You don't need a slightly better king who's more to the right.

[25:06] I think the Bible's view is more like this one, right? It's binary. You have perfect and you have sinful. Now, some people are more sinful than others, but this is basically what the Bible says.

[25:18] And this passage shows, you know, this one sin. Clearly, David's not perfect and he's just in the other spectrum with everyone else, right? The most godly spouse is not perfect.

[25:30] They will sin. The most wonderful boss that you have will make your life difficult at some point at work. The best kings will let you down. All people are sinners.

[25:41] They're all compromised. Such a sobering truth, right? You know, that's saying nobody's perfect. It's kind of encouragement. Ah, nobody's perfect. It's actually really depressing.

[25:52] Nobody's perfect. It's really, yeah, that's it. And the thing is, that has consequences. Because the king and the kingdom are linked. Right? If David is a compromised king, well, what do we get in the kingdom?

[26:07] Now, we don't see that much. We don't see this wonderful description as we had in chapter 8. But look at that. We need to look at that summary. Now, do you know the game spot the difference?

[26:18] Right? If you have kids, you probably know that. There's two pictures, and they look the same, but if you look carefully, there's a few differences. Right? Well, let's do that with the summary at the end of chapter 20, and the other one at the end of chapter 8.

[26:33] I've put them here on the screen. I've also in the bulletin at the bottom, I've printed it, so if you're sitting at the back, but you have a bulletin. So just have a look. Read it through.

[26:44] I mean, sometimes things have been swapped around, but there's three major differences. See if anyone can find them. If you find the differences, raise your hand. Is the kingdom really the same?

[27:07] Don't be shy. Anyone?

[27:19] Anything that's missing? Anything that's been added? No one?

[27:34] Oscar. Yeah. Exactly. Chapter 8, it started with, and David reigned over all Israel, and he did justice and equity for all the people.

[27:47] David isn't even mentioned in the other one, right? It's just his officials. David is like a shadow. He's not even there. No justice, no equity is not even mentioned. Anything else?

[28:05] Yeah, Faith? Yeah. Adoram was over the forced labor. Maybe you see it in the middle.

[28:16] So now we have a department of forced labor, a department of slavery in the cabinet. Right? I don't know what you think. That doesn't sound very good. There's one more maybe at the end.

[28:30] Chapter 8, David's sons were priests, and David's sons are not mentioned in the other one. Maybe because between the two, three of David's sons have died. But yeah, let's put it here.

[28:42] But here we go, right? We have a kingdom of justice and equity. And now we have a place with forced labor. Right? It's just not the same. If you read carefully, man, in chapter 8, you saw that it was so wonderful.

[28:56] I want to live there. But the opposite is also true. Right? Now you see David's kingdom, and you think, man, I don't want to live there. Well, forced labor.

[29:07] What a terrible place. The glory is gone. Right? And so basically, yeah, we have here the broken kingdom. And no longer the godly king and the glorious kingdom, we have the compromised king and the broken kingdom.

[29:21] That is, if you look carefully, it looks good, it looks back, and yet, it's gone. Right? It's so true of life, right? The king leads to the kingdom.

[29:33] You know, if you have a sinful spouse, you're going to have problems in your marriage. If you have a boss and colleagues who fall short, you have a job that falls short. And we often don't get it.

[29:44] We keep changing. I had this friend of mine, like, a few years ago. Every time I met him, he had a different job. That was in the time that the job market was better. But yeah, why?

[29:56] Well, my boss is a jerk, next job. Oh, my colleagues are annoying, next job. But the customers are so frustrating. Right? He was never happy, and he kept on changing.

[30:06] He kept looking for the perfect job, and he never got it, because, yeah, people are sinful, and therefore you will have a bad experience, right? People fleeing the country, so many people fleeing or emigrating because hopefully it's better somewhere else.

[30:24] Sometimes that's really true. If you want to escape the war in Ukraine, that's a really good thing to do. And yet, nowhere is perfect, right? Wherever you move to, the people are sinners, the people in charge, they don't follow God, it will never be perfect.

[30:41] And so wherever you look for your hope, it's not going to work. And those of reality, I don't know what you're going to face tomorrow, but I can tell you it's going to be disappointing, right?

[30:51] People will sin against you and you will have a bad experience. That's life in this world, right? Because, yeah, just like the king and the kingdom are linked, people lead to your experience.

[31:02] Some days are better than others, but it's never perfect. And I'm not even talking about your own sin, right? This is about the people we hope in, the people we look to. I mean, so much of problems in my life, I'm part of the problem, right?

[31:15] But we're not talking about that. And, you know, it gets even worse. Because the kingdom is not just broken. In a way, having in chapter 20 another rebellion isn't that good.

[31:28] But especially that cry of Sheba in verse 1, right? we have no portion in David. We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his ten so Israel.

[31:40] Does it sound familiar to anyone? Probably not. Well, come with me to 1 Kings chapter 12.

[31:52] I mean, what happens in, what happens to David, after David came Solomon, he had this glorious kingdom, although he then turned away from the Lord. And then we had, what's it, but after him came Rehoboam.

[32:07] And God had said under him the kingdom would split. And Rehoboam, he was a bit of an idiot, right? So the people came to him that, hey, we had it a bit tough under Solomon, can you make it lighter? And he asked for advice, and his friend said to him, oh, just tough them.

[32:21] And so that's what he said, right? Well, you think my father's tough, I'm going to be even tougher. What did they say? 1 Kings chapter 12, verse 16. And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, what portion do we have in David?

[32:39] We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your ten, so Israel. Look to your own house, David. It's pretty much exactly the same thing as begging to Samuel.

[32:50] Exactly the same words. And even more, what does Rehoboam do? He's not a very good diplomat, right? Verse 18. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones.

[33:08] It's not really good, right? If people are complaining that you're too tough, don't send a chief slave driver. But basically, yeah. But the same Adoram. Which is interesting, right?

[33:20] So back into Samuel, it's like we have a cameo. We have a little foreshadowing, right? What happens in chapter 12, this big event, the split of the kingdom, how the kingdom fell apart, we get that kind of foreshadowed.

[33:37] We get a cameo into Samuel. Marvel movies, you often have foreshadowing, you often have cameos, because people expect you to see all the movies. And that's kind of here.

[33:50] And you may think, oh man, this is quite complicated. Just to say, the only thing I do for this is just read my Bible, right? If you read the Bible every year, every two years, and you kind of remember what it says, the writer wants you to pick up on these things.

[34:05] It has nothing to do with knowing Hebrew or seminary. You know, if you notice a verse, hey, this is very similar to that verse, go back and check it. But that's what the writer wants you to see.

[34:16] Man, the kingdom, you know, the doom of the kingdom is foreshadowed here. And so we have not just a broken kingdom, we have a doomed kingdom. A doomed kingdom.

[34:27] Right? The readers know David's kingdom didn't last. But where did it go wrong? You know, we've read through kings. Was it Manasseh and his idolatry? Was it Ahaz and his politics?

[34:39] Was it Solomon and his 700 wives? Well, the writer is hinting, actually, already under David. Under David, it was basically already doomed.

[34:50] And there's some truth that, you know, there's great kings and bad kings, and David was pretty good, and in the rest of kings, he's always the standard.

[35:01] All the other kings, well, they're as good as David, or not as good as David, or nowhere like David, and God was gracious. You know, 400 years, the kingdom went on and on and on.

[35:12] God was merciful, yet the writer is saying, already under David, it was doomed. Already under David, not Manasseh, not Ahaz, not Solomon, as soon as David sinned, it was basically done.

[35:28] Because, ultimately, sin brings judgment. Right? We've seen how awful sin is, and as soon as sin comes in, it's doomed. Like we had with COVID, right?

[35:39] As soon as there was one Omicron case in a place, you know, everyone's going to get it. And that's basically the message here. It's doomed. Even the best human kingdoms, the best institutions, the best marriages, the best jobs, they can run on a bit, some better than others.

[35:56] Everything in the ultimately is doomed. Right? Where there's sin, God wants a perfect world. Everything that's less than perfect will go one day. It's doomed.

[36:08] So that is where we're ending, right? The Bible warns you everything's broken. Everywhere there's sin and everything is doomed. It's so depressing, right? We thought there would be a happy ending here in 2 Samuel.

[36:19] Actually, there isn't. Actually, David, once he sinned, it was over. Now we need a better king, right? We need to go back to this spectrum.

[36:30] We don't need someone who is further along that little spectrum on the left. We need someone on the right. We need a king who is not just less sinful.

[36:41] We need someone who is perfect. If he is perfect, if he never sins, there will never be judgment. He can bring the perfect kingdom that we all need that lasts forever.

[36:53] And it's no surprise that that's Jesus, right? That is the king we need because everything else will fail. Everything else will not work. He's the only one who can save, the only one who can bring the kingdom.

[37:06] So the right response, yeah, is to turn from him, to turn to him, right? To turn away from the things in the world that we know are not going to work, that we know we're not going to satisfy, and turn to him.

[37:18] That's what we're going to do in a moment with the baptisms, right? All these people, people who saw that there was no hope in the world and so they've turned to Jesus and found life in him.

[37:30] But not just one day, no, every day of our lives. Right? We need Jesus so much because there's no other hope in the world.

[37:40] well, let's pray and sing. Our Father, thank you for this reality check.

[37:57] Father, there are many good things in the world and yet nothing's perfect. So much of life, there's frustrations, there's disappointments because ultimately this is a world where people sin, where we sin, where things go wrong.

[38:13] Father, would we see that? Would we not chase after other things, think that we can find just something better here? Would we see that it's only Jesus who can make things right, only Jesus who's perfect, only Jesus who obeyed you perfectly on the cross when he died for our sins, only Jesus who can bring us back to you?

[38:32] Lord, would we look to him? Lord, give us faith, whoever we are here, wherever we're at, bring us to Jesus. In his name we pray.

[38:44] Amen.